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Has Marvel shot itself in the foot by bringing superfreak Sentry into Thunderbolts*?

The inconveniently irrational god-being makes Rocket Raccoon look positively humdrum. Would it be wise to let him monopolise the multiverse?Is there ever a right time to introduce into your superhero universe a psychologically unstable god-being with the potential to sneeze a continent off the map? It is probably not when – 17 years in – you are being accused of having lost half your audience to superhero fatigue. But that’s exactly what Marvel is doing this weekend as Thunderbolts* brings us Sentry, quite possibly the freakiest superhero to ever grace the comic book publisher’s hallowed pages. You thought Rocket Raccoon was weird and unhinged? Reckon Moon Knight is a bit of a handful? This guy makes them look like well-adjusted professionals with decent pensions.Sentry first appeared in 2000 in The Sentry miniseries which offered a sort of meta-commentary on superhero mythology; the character was initially presented as a forgotten Silver Age icon, retconned into Marvel history via an elaborate in-universe memory wipe that made everyone forget he existed – including himself. A glowing, golden powerhouse with the “power of a million exploding suns” he suffers from crippling anxiety, addiction, and the inconvenient tendency to transform into a malevolent entity known as the Void, a living embodiment of all his worst fears and impulses. Imagine Superman, if he cried after every rescue, kept forgetting he had a dog, and occasionally blacked out and levelled entire cities. Continue reading...

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